English Premier League champions and leaders Chelsea faced a difficult match on Sunday as they travelled to Anfield, the home of a Liverpool side in a run of (relatively) good form, and their manager, Roy Hodgson, could bring in striker Fernando Torres after he was rested in midweek.

And that decision paid dividends as the Spaniard recovered the spectacular form which has been missing for many months, surprising many by producing a fairly spectacular performance that the opposition were unable to contain.

He scored his first quite early on with a classy finish past Petr Cech, but went better on the stroke of half-time by coming in from the left and curling a spectacular effort into the far side of the net.

Chelsea improved after the break and forced Pepe Reina to make some saves, but they could not find a way back against their hosts, and Liverpool earned a valuable 2 – 0 victory.

Other matches saw Arsenal take on Newcastle United at the Emirates, where the visitors pulled off a surprise by earning a 0 – 1 win; and recently lacklustre Manchester City visited high-flying West Brom, but the expensively assembled outfit found the match easy going as they claimed the three points with a 0 - 2 result, with both goals from Mario Balotelli.